Event Summary: USAID Frontiers for Development Conference Investing for Sustainable Development June 13, 2012 Georgetown

University, Washington, D.C. Moderator: Donald Steinberg, Deputy Administrator, USAID Panelists: Emilia Pires, minister of finance, Timor-Leste Amara Konneh, minister of planning and economic affairs, Liberia Rakesh Rajani, Twaweza Paul OBrien, Oxfam America Donald Steinberg Panel will discuss sustainability in development: the cost of services, the need for noncorrupt processes, and stakeholders necessary for long term development. Flip around the old adage, Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day; teach him to fish, and he eats for a lifetime. If you give a man a fish, you know that hes going to eat today. While teaching a man to fish is good, it takes a long time and is very complicated. Emilia Pires When I became minister, Timor-Leste was in crisis. Development is a long-term issue. Addressing crisis is short term, but you need to plan both short and long term. Had a hard time convincing other ministers within Timor-Leste to plan for the long-term; they had been acting unsustainably. First sorted out Timor-Lestes IDP situation within two years, which allowed the creation of a long-term development plan, which brought in foreign donors and investment. Addressing the short- and long terms together is beneficial. Amara Konneh [Regarding the fragility of Liberia] Every fragile state has history of conflict. Liberia had a civil war. o People usually think about the hard destruction physical destruction of infrastructure but forget about the soft, like interruptions in social services and other human capital. Focused on a few issues, namely country ownership building the capacity of Liberian institutions. o Learned from our first poverty reduction plan (a three-year plan), which focused on a few priorities, and had the development community adding things to that list. o This list became long. A laundry list of interventions without real implementation isnt helpful. Second poverty reduction strategy is committed to just four things: Youth, unemployment, capacity-building (for example, Liberia has only six surgeons) and conflict reconciliation. The development community wants Liberia to focus on certain things, but they have been able to step aside and say Ok, we need to focus on the things that Liberia thinks it needs. Our open budget plan is now going to require that ministries write quarterly reports about their expenditures.

Paul OBrien Development is about trade-offs. If the consensus at the forum is that its not about us, how do we do that? Development workers dont want to get in the way. Public institutions with a public purpose are essential. Private institutions with a private purpose (the private sector). o Despite concern about CEOs coming in with private money, the state has been the real winner. o Of course NGOs should be talking to the private sector, but they fundamentally have a private purpose something very different than what the development world wants. Public institutions with a private purpose (public workers using resources for their own interests). This is not teaching a man to fish, nor is it giving a man a fish. Private actors with a public interest: perhaps we arent challenging the power-structure. o Transparency and accountability dont automatically lead to economic growth, and that is fundamentally an issue of power. o Ethiopia shut down Skype yesterday. What can we do about issues like that? Rakesh Rajani [What has worked? What hasnt] Development is a workshop, where you talk; the way to do capacity-building is to not do capacity building. These are institutional problems, but the wrong types of solutions are being generated. o Water pumps dont work, but a 20-year old bike does. o A 1970s Peugeot works, but a new computer doesnt. o People, including poor people, are really curious, and what they want are ideas, and tools, and markets, and data in a real sense, evidence. Capacity-building is about communication. o Mobile phones allow for cheap communication. o Accountability caused the president to reshuffle the cabinet. That happened because the president couldnt ignore the problem, because the problems were so widely communicated. o People communicating changes the world, when there are lots of insights and perspectives. What matters to people is whether and how things get done. Learning does not equal just sending kids to school. What would accountability look like if it were really about getting things done? Pires Even in states where leadership is good, the behavior of people engaged in development can improve. o There is a tendency for agencies to protect or isolate themselves in guarded compounds. o The international community says it doesnt have capacity, while it stays isolated and doesnt engage with local populations and governments. International partners need to support the locals, not expensively contract with outsiders or at least work inside a government and teach locals, so that when international people leave, locals can continue to work. There are so many reports, but no cross-cutting analyses.

Steinberg This is a brand new world. USAID is trying to figure out its role in this new world. No agency can do this on its own. No institution has a monopoly on resources, on new ideas, or moral authority. Konneh Finance ministers are presumed corrupt. The majority of people are poor and have no jobs, and feel that finance ministers should be getting them out of that. Development partners need to align with the locals. The current development framework agreement with the U.S. is the same one that was created in 1926. Most fragile countries dont want to be fragile. Its not sexy to be called a fragile state. Must now be transparent, open up to our citizens and our partners. There needs to be unprecedented openness of the budget process. o Partners wont tell finance departments where their ODA money is going. o Accountability isnt just on the side of the recipient countries, but should be on both sides. o Working all the time toward benchmarks to gain international trust; as soon as you hit one benchmark, another is introduced. Information is really key, the foundation of which is an educated population. Therefore, need more funding for education and published accounts of how much money is going to each district. Sent people to investigate the outcomes of a construction project; in one instance, videotaped a building whose wall was pushed over by hand. Who takes accountability for projects like this that fail? Have worked hard to build one of the best financial systems in the government, a pilot program called the Fixed Amount Reimbursement Account. o The Liberian government puts money into this system, and we get reimbursed for the money if development benchmarks are met. Hope to replicate this program so that foreign aid is no longer needed in 10 years. OBrien Private donors are acknowledging more often that it is not about us, it is about needy populations. Must make clear to Congress that learning to manage risk and get money to local people is necessary if theyre ever going to be truly self-sufficient. Rajani What kind of results really matter? The problem with focusing on results is a tendency to micromanage them, to make results mean success on all points of a 79-point plan. Instead, the actual results are whether students actually learn and whether a kid actually recovers from a disease.